Devilish, by Maureen Johnson

Jane and Ally are the misfits at St. Teresa’s, the local all-girl Catholic high school; Jane is short, brilliant, and rebellious, while Ally has a Thing for vampires and witches (including the book Fondled by Shadows, which I will never stop finding awesome.)

The day after an absolutely magnificent humiliation, Ally comes to school with a new haircut and a new friend. Things are looking just a little too good to be true: she’s sold her soul to the devil, and Jane has to figure out how to get it back by Halloween.

I liked Johnson’s Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes but didn’t love it; it was competent, well-executed, but lacked a certain spark. Devilish has that spark. It’s fun and hard to put down, and Jane has a sense of humor about St. Teresa’s that’s never as bitter and angry as her reputation would suggest. I love how it puts a friendship between girls at the center of the story and shunts the romance bits off to the side, and the way that friendship is depicted rings really true to me.

I still felt like Johnson could’ve taken this just a little bit darker, a little bit sharper — and that might have made it a book I jumped all up and down over, but I still enjoyed it greatly.